Death's Blossoms
by MilleniumGirl
Summary: CHP 10 UP, finally! Ryou Bakura buys a rosebush. But it isn't an ordinary plant, as he soon discovers... More to come soon!
1. Prologue

MilleniumGirl: Hi there! This is another of my horror fanfics, so... Yeah, it's kind of a weird subject, but let's just say I have a big scratch that I got from a rosebush today and I'm not feeling very friendly toward the bush.  
  
Seto: It's just a stupid bush...  
  
MG: SHHHH, it'll hear you!!!  
  
Mokuba: ...?  
  
MG: Well anyway, this first chapter is kinda like a prologue, so none of the Yu-gi-oh characters really show up, but they will in the other chapters.  
  
Seto: She doesn't own Yu-gi-oh, by the way.  
  
MG: ONWARD, TROOPS! To the story! MARCH!  
  
Mokuba and Seto: --U  
  
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One day, thirty years ago, a man named George went to a plant sale and purchased a lovely little rosebush. The plant was healthy and had beautiful white flowers, numerous and large. George decided to buy the rosebush for his wife, who, like himself, loved to garden. The rosebush would make a lovely addition to the wonderful garden these two had created together.  
  
Or so he thought.  
  
His wife was very pleased and immediately planted the bush. She took good care of it, too, watering it and fertilizing it. The bush grew to a tremendous size in a small amount of time. It seemed to thrive best under George and his wife's care.  
  
Soon, there was a storm. Raging winds toppled trees and powerlines. Rain came down like bullets. Thunder clapped. George was horrified to see that two of his trees and the rosebush had been struck by lightning. He hated to see anything in his garden killed, and would not be very happy the next day when he had to uproot the dead plants.  
  
But the rosebush was still alive. George and his wife were shocked to find the rosebush healthy and blooming, whereas the two trees were blackened and wilting. They shrugged it off and continued with their lives. But they didn't know what the lightning had done. George's wife would never know.  
  
One day late in summer, George's wife pointed out that the rosebush was getting a bit big. George agreed, and his wife went to clip it down a little. When she came back, she was covered in scratches. She smiled and said that the rosebush had put up a bit of a resistance. It was like it knew what she was doing.  
  
They laughed.  
  
About a year later, the wife wished to redo the backyard landscaping completely. She said it was time for change, and George agreed. She suggested they cut down the rosebush. It was beautiful, but it was taking up way too much space. George didn't want to see the bush go, but he knew that there could be more beautiful things in its place. He sent his wife out with the hedge clippers to uproot the old bush.  
  
When he came into the backyard ten minutes later, his wife was lying dead on the ground.  
  
The doctor said she had bled to death. Her body was covered in small pinpricks, and the doctor suggested that she might have fallen into a very large rosebush.  
  
George got home later that day and destroyed the bush. Every time a tear fell he hacked at it mercilessly. Petals flew everywhere. This was not how he wanted it to end. George threw the brambles of what was left of the bush over the fence and went inside the house.  
  
The next day, when several relatives had come over to comfort George, he went into his backyard bad discovered the bush had grown back. He was shocked, and took a weedwhacker to it, watching it shred and die on his lawn. He smiled, then threw the brambles in the neighbor's yard.  
  
It came back. Again. And again. Each time George would find the rosebush, large and blooming, in the same place in his yard. He set fire to it. He poisoned it. He stabbed its roots over and over until nothing was left but a green mess. But each time it came back, getting more ruthless every time he killed it. It grew more wildly. The limbs became very thick and hard to penetrate. The roots choked up all the other flowers in the garden until there was nothing left alive but the rosebush. The spikes, one of the less attractive parts on any rosebush, became the size of a finger.  
  
And the blossoms were not white anymore. In fact, every time the damned bush grew back, the roses got a shade darker. By this point, they were a blood red color. The site of the bush filled George with dread.  
  
He had to get rid of it. Get rid of it for good. So George replanted the entire thing in a large pot and drove to town, where he spotted an open market type gathering. He parked his truck and set up the rosebush.  
  
For free, he told passerby. Take it. Please.  
  
Right before George thought all hope was lost, he saw two men coming towards him. One was a happy teenager; the other, a dangerous looking man with his arms folded across his chest. They both had long white hair.  
  
George looked to his burden, and then at the men.  
  
Ryou Bakura was going to buy the rosebush.  
  
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MG: Not much yet... It was short because I didn't have a lot to say for this first part.  
  
Seto: Haha, Bakura has to buy the rosebush...  
  
Bakura: Technically, I don't have to, but I think it's pretty.  
  
Seto: Yeah, well, I didn't "have to" go on a zombie plane either, so...  
  
MG: Please review!!!! 


	2. It Begins

MilleniumGirl: Thank you reviewers! You guys RULE!!!!  
  
Seto: Yay. Go reviewers. Can I leave now?  
  
MG: I'm glad you came back for the second chapter! I'm working my best to get these out quickly!  
  
Seto: Can a PLEASE leave now?  
  
MG: Not before you do the disclaimer!  
  
Seto: MilleniumGirldoesn'townYugiohitwouldbeasaddayifshedidO.K. SEE YA!  
  
MG: Humph, it's almost like he doesn't want to hang around my evil stories and me... Oh well! Oh and in this story Yami Bakura= Bakura, Ryou=Ryou, Good Marik= Marik, and Yami Marik= Malik  
  
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Ryou stopped short of George and the rosebush with a large smile on his face.  
  
"Oh, what a lovely rosebush! Wow, so big and bright... it reminds me of an old plant in the neighbor's garden back in England..." the boy said happily. The man sighed and rolled his eyes.  
  
"Yes yes Ryou, that's wonderful, can we go now?" Bakura said unenthusiastically.  
  
"Oh... but, I really wanted to look at this plant some more..."  
  
"You seriously aren't considering buying the stupid thing?"  
  
"And why not?"  
  
"Because... It's not black."  
  
"...what?"  
  
"Have I taught you nothing, hikari? Black equals wonderful things. The plant is not black. Therefore, it is not a wonderful thing."  
  
"That's absurd! Look, you're not black, are you!"  
  
"Yes, but there is black in MY SOUL, so let's MOVE ON, shall we?"  
  
George watched them volley with unease. This boy, Ryou, was the only one who had shown any interest in his roses all day. He must get rid of the plant.  
  
"Look, sir, I'll pay you to take it," George said, leaping up.  
  
"Oh, so you're just that desperate to ruin my life, aren't you?" Bakura said dryly. But then he said, "How much?" with a new air of enthusiasm.  
  
"I don't know. Anything," George said, fishing out his wallet.  
  
"No no, we can't charge him for these... he's willing to give them to me for free, why would he need to pay me?" Ryou said, smiling and admiring the roses.  
  
"Because he's a f..." Bakura started to say, but a warning look from his hikari made him stop. "Lord, you're no fun, Ryou... I'm gonna go find Malik."  
  
"Now just wait a minute, you get to help my carry this," Ryou said, thrusting the plant into his yami's arms. Bakura groaned angrily. Ryou snapped at him for not being helpful. Bakura snapped back at him for being a moron.  
  
George took this opportunity to flee as far away as he could from the damned bush in Bakura's arms.  
  
"Stupid Ryou, I don't need to be a gentleman..." Bakura said in a dry tone.  
  
"Oh yeah? Well, I pity your future girlfriend, it's absolutely unbearable to live with you..." Ryou said angrily.  
  
Bakura snorted into the plant. "You live with me and you seem to like it fine."  
  
Ryou was about to retort but Malik and Marik swerved around a watermelon stand and stopped in front of the two.  
  
Malik snickered. "Who are the roses for, Bakura?"  
  
Bakura looked to kill. "This is my hikari's stupid bush, you dolt, and I'd hit you if I wasn't carrying it."  
  
"Then why don't you just throw it at him?" Marik said innocently. Malik growled.  
  
"Stolen anything yet?" Bakura whispered to Malik, leaning in closer to him and almost scraping him with a thorn.  
  
"Yeah, I nicked this pot... HEY, watch it, Tomb Robber, you almost cut my flesh with that... whoa..." Malik said, admiring the thorns. "Heh, these are nifty... I shall take one, or two, if that is acceptable..."  
  
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! Don't touch that plant, Malik! Those thorns protect the plant from things that want to eat it; you can't just rip them off..." Ryou protested.  
  
Malik sneered. "Huh, that would have to be one big animal to hurt this thing... It'd have to have a big mouth, like Tea."  
  
"Yeah, and maybe it'll start giving out friendship speeches, too! AHH, SHIELD THE INNOCENT! TEA'S GIVING A SPEECH!" Bakura said, cracking up along with Malik. While they were laughing, Malik casually snapped a thorn off the gnarled stem.  
  
Suddenly, he gave an uncharacteristic yelp as one of the rosebush branches whipped around and sunk into his flesh. Growling, he tried to unstick the branch from his arm, wincing.  
  
"I swear I didn't do it," Bakura said quickly. Malik shook his head no to clarify that he didn't blame Bakura for it. Ryou watched in horror as Malik finally removed the thorns, leaving his arm a bloody mess. Marik looked nervously at his yami.  
  
But all Malik did was laugh. "Foolish plant, it's like it hurt me on purpose... Now why can't they all be like that? There would be much less people in the world..." Bakura and Malik began to laugh hysterically. Then they argued about how they were going to divvy up the blood on Malik's arm. The hikaris rolled their eyes and walked a distance away.  
  
"That was pretty weird," Marik said, looking at the bush.  
  
"Yeah... but, at least your yami's in a good mood... mine would've sent the bush to the Shadow Realm by now if he had been poked," Ryou said, smiling. Marik thought 'poked' was the understatement of the year, but he didn't say anything out loud.  
  
"Well, they do get a kick out of being hurt, so..." Ryou laughed. "We'd better get going. I'll see you later."  
  
Marik nodded, and he and Malik walked off. Malik was looking with interest at the wound on his arm.  
  
Later, back at Ryou's house, he spent the afternoon planting the new bush. It really stood out among the rest of his garden, and he thought it added a lot. He smiled and stood back, admiring the plant. But then something caught his eye.  
  
"Ugh..." he sighed, looking at a mess of blood on one of the plant's limbs. "Malik got blood all over my plant..." He reached for the hose to give the plant a spray-down. But he stopped before he turned the water on, looking at the plant in horrid fascination.  
  
There wasn't just blood on the one limb. In fact, every rose on the bush was dripping with blood.  
  
Ryou ran into the house just as thunder shook the ground and rain fell.  
  
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MG: Little little chapter! Sorry!  
  
Yami: Don't apologize. The less to read, the better.  
  
MG: Is that your philosophy?  
  
Yami: Noooo, but it could be.  
  
MG: Where's Seto? I mean Kaiba?  
  
Yami: He didn't want to hang out with you, because he was afraid you'd put him and Mokuba in the story.  
  
MG: Ohhhh... Anyway, thanks for reading, and PLEASE PLEASE review if you can! (grumbling) Like I'd put them in _another_ story... Well, actually... 


	3. Stung

MilleniumGirl: (does happy-that-the-reviewers-were-so-awesome dance) HI!  
  
Flight Attendant: ssssSSSSSSSsss  
  
MG: Um O.k I'll hurry it up, and just so you know I'm being held hostage by the zombie flight attendant because someone filed a complaint about my beginning and ending being too long and...  
  
Flight Attendant: SSSSSSSSSS!!!!!  
  
MG: 0o;; EEP, I mean I don't own Yu-gi-oh and yeah, here's the story!  
  
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Rain splattered the windows and the wind whipped around outside the house. Ryou sat quietly inside on the kitchen table, trying to have a decent discussion with his yami, avoiding the subject of blood. Needless to say, there were other things Bakura could think to talk about.  
  
"So... um... the rain..." Ryou said, looking onto the porch.  
  
"I like it. It's cold," Bakura said, flipping through the paper.  
  
Ryou took notice of this unusual behavior. "Why are you reading the paper?"  
  
"It's not against the law, is it?" Bakura responded dryly.  
  
"Well, I was just curious... I mean, you usually use it for other things besides reading..." Ryou said cautiously.  
  
"Hey!" Bakura snapped. "I only did that once, and you were thankful, too, that I found something good to clean the blood up with..."  
  
Ryou shuddered and changed the subject. "So, anything... er... interesting in the paper? That you're reading?" He added unnecessarily.  
  
"Yeah, this stupid slut had consensual sex with some dude be..." Bakura began, but his hikari snapped at him.  
  
"Not what I wanted to hear. Anything... else, that isn't about the little wonders of society..." Ryou said, rolling his eyes.  
  
Bakura's expression remained consistent as he said, "Well, this girl got raped..."  
  
"NO, GREAT SCOTT! SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T PERSONIFY THE COMPLEXITIES OF THIS DISENTIGRATING MELANCHOLY SOCIETY, AS IN MURDER OR RAPE OR ETCETERA!!!" Ryou said angrily.  
  
"What?"  
  
Ryou slammed his head on the table.  
  
"Hikari, don't do that, you'll give yourself a concussion."  
  
"There! That's it! Anything in the paper concerning medical, political, recreational, other?"  
  
"Well, there is something in the Garden section about roses..."  
  
Ryou turned white and ran out of the room. Bakura rolled his eyes and flipped back to the page about the rape. But when he looked out the window, he saw the beautiful cold, wet rain, and it called to him. He went outside and down unto the grass. Bakura took a deep breath and stretched. But then he froze, his nose quivering. He smelled blood. Bakura smiled and followed the scent, expecting a dying animal, or, even better, a person...  
  
But he was led to the rosebush. He curiously inspected the base, and then the leaves, finding nothing. His eyes fell upon the roses. Bakura moved his head closer and closer to the bush until his nose touched something inside the blossom. He withdrew quickly, but it was only a bee. Pinching its soaked wings between his fingers, he smirked as he watched it struggle and try to sting him. He put it on the grass by his feet and stepped on it, satisfied with the sharp crunching sound it made. He then turned back to the rosebush.  
  
The smirk fell off his face.  
  
There were bees crawling out of the roses. Not just honeybees, either. Big, slick-bodied wasps and fat black bumbles emerged from the blossoms as well. The rosebush came alive with humming. Bakura took a step backwards.  
  
There was something wrong with these insects. They were not behaving normally. Instead of buzzing around the flowers in circles, the bees had perched themselves on the tip of the roses, wings flapping. They were all facing Bakura, who had made a quick observation. All hundred or so of these bees were covered in blood...  
  
...like the blood from the roses... like they had come to get pollen, like a regular bee, and somehow been taken over...  
  
...the rosebush was making them do this...  
  
Bakura had little other thoughts afterwards except to save himself from the bees. As one, they launched themselves from their petals and attacked him. The rain fogged his vision, so the attackers came as small blackened dots toward him. Being so small and so numerous, they were a difficult enemy, and Bakura found himself becoming desperate. He recognized the pains of hundreds of bee stings across his body. Waving his arm around madly, he made a mental note to never mess with a bee again.  
  
He audibly cursed the rosebush. But nothing like that would help him. Feeling his arms go numb from loss of blood, hearing nothing but the squirmy sounds of insects on his body and the continuous humming of the ones in the air, he tried to flee. His legs failed him and his head hit concrete.  
  
It was black. And then...  
  
Bakura saw a face. When his eyes had at last focused, he realized Ryou was standing over him with a concerned look on his face. Bakura sat up, mumbling.  
  
"Damn bees..." he said, looking at his arms, which his hikari had done a nice job of bandaging up.  
  
"Damn bees! Is that all you can say? I was coming outside as they attacked you, didn't you hear me? Well, it was AWFUL, I thought you were going to die of blood loss or something..." Ryou panted, wringing his hands.  
  
"I can't die..." Bakura smirked, but stopped when he saw how much distress his hikari was in.  
  
Ryou sat down, his hands to his mouth in horror. "But there were so many..." he said in a shaky voice. Bakura didn't know if he was scared or relieved or worried... maybe all of them. He surveyed the damage to his skin in the reflection of a pan on the kitchen counter. The skin was heeling quickly, so he wasn't worried.... Ryou seemed to be, though.  
  
"Doctor," he said, standing up and snapping his fingers. "That's it, we'll take you to the emergency room and..."  
  
"No! Absolutely not, I refuse to go anywhere near one of those nutcases..." Bakura said, slamming the pot back down.  
  
The noise made Ryou jump. He shook his head and said," No no, 'Kura, the doctors know what they're doing... They'd be able to help..."  
  
Bakura rolled his eyes. "I do not need help, Ryou. You did a fine job bandaging up my arms, but I don't need anything else. It doesn't hurt at all."  
  
Ryou argued with him until he was reminded that the last time Bakura had been forced into a hospital, a doctor and a receptionist had gone missing because of his impatience. He gave up, and answered the phone when it rang.  
  
It was Marik. He went on blabbing about a huge storm for what seemed like 15 minutes, until Bakura grabbed the phone from Ryou and asked to speak to Malik. Then, after Bakura had explained to Malik what had happened with the bees, he got to hear Malik laugh hysterically for what seemed like 15 minutes until Bakura called him a name in Egyptian and slammed the phone down. Ryou laughed and decided he was going to uproot the bush before the big storm. Bakura applauded dryly at this news, saying that the bush was a waste of time in the first place.  
  
"Well, it sure is pretty to look at, until you see the blood... then it's not so great..." Ryou said, shuddering.  
  
"I liked that part. I don't like those hyped up bees, though. Well, the stupid bush should be easy to get out of the ground with the ground being so soft and all," Bakura said, looking out at the rain.  
  
"Yes," his hikari agreed. "I'll go outside right now and..."  
  
Bakura started an argument by saying that he should dig it up. It lasted for several minutes until Bakura stated that Ryou didn't have the physical strength or mental power to rip up a living thing. He was agreed with half- heartedly and sent outside with a rain jacket, which he quickly discarded of once outside. Cautiously in case there were any bees close by, Bakura ripped the bush out by its roots and threw it over the fence.  
  
He would soon come to regret it.  
  
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MilleniumGirl: (sitting next to angry zombie) Hi again! I can take as long as I want to say something now, because I beat the flight attendant! But I still don't get who filed that complaint...  
  
Flight Attendant: sss  
  
MG: Oh, so you mean Malik dragged you out of my other story to keep me hostage so I couldn't talk for so long because he wanted me to hurry up and get to the part where Bakura got stung by bees because he thought it was funny?  
  
Flight Attendant: (nods)  
  
MG: Aha! Well, please review, and come back for the next chapter!!!! 


	4. Stan and the Rosebush

MilleniumGirl: YAY!!! I would put all of you reviewer's names up but my sis is on the computer so I can't check the names. Anyhoo! Thanks you sooooooo much for all the comments! ...Call me stupid, but I've never actually seen Little Shop of Horrors... I have heard of it, though, and I'm going to see it!  
  
Ryou: A classic! I'll see it again! It's classic!  
  
MG: You are supposed to be in the story!  
  
Ryou: (muttering) I don't want to...  
  
Flight Attendant: SSSSSS!!!!  
  
Ryou: 0.o;;; mEEP! YES MA'AM!  
  
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As you may have guessed, the bush was back the next day. Ryou had woken up early to make breakfast and spotted the bush out the window. He sighed and called Bakura.  
  
"What?" Bakura said drowsily, running a hand through his hair.  
  
"I thought you were going to rip the bush up yesterday. Was it too hard?" Ryou said, handing him a coffee cup, which Bakura drank hurriedly.  
  
When he had swallowed, he said, "It was easy. And I did rip it up."  
  
Ryou shook his head. "Then what's that?" he said, pointing outside to the rosebush.  
  
Bakura spit out the coffee he had in his mouth. "WHAT THE HELL? UGGH, IT REPLANTED ITSELF OVERNIGHT..." he shouted, slamming the coffee cup down.  
  
Ryou jumped a bit. "Is that so? But how could it have gotten so big...?" he said, looking curiously at the plant. "Shall we go take a look?"  
  
"Damn right I'm gonna "take a look"..." Bakura muttered. "Ryou, that rosebush is messed."  
  
They walked outside and to the rosebush. After inspecting it, they concluded that it was almost the exact same plant in the exact same place. Except, Bakura noticed with glee, that the blood red roses were now darker.  
  
"Maybe if they turn black, it will be a better plant!" he exclaimed. "Ryou, do all flowers change the color of their petals? I don't really take notice of such unimportant things, but..."  
  
Ryou was silent for a while. "No, they don't," he finally said. "This is odd."  
  
"Odd..." Bakura repeated. "I prefer screwy." He reached to the bush, fingering a dark red rose, and made a swift movement to pull it off.  
  
But just as it had done to Malik, the bush retaliated. Except now it was about a foot bigger and covered in eight-inch long spikes. As soon as Bakura yanked on the rose, several long spiky limbs came crashing down on him. He hollered and leapt back, cursing. Ryou stood with his hands to his mouth. Bakura whacked and tore at the limbs until seven or so branches lay severed from their body. The ground was streaked with blood.  
  
"Are you all right?" Ryou said in a shaky voice. Bakura grumbled in response. "It's like it didn't want you to touch it," he continued. "Like it was al..."  
  
But then, Ryou stopped short, for the severed limbs of the bush were moving. They slithered like snakes to the rosebush, attaching themselves into the ground or back onto a continuation of a stem.  
  
The two stared for a few seconds, and then Ryou high-tailed it into the house, dragging Bakura with him.  
  
"Did you SEE that? That plant is possessed, I tell you, we've got to get rid of it, and if uprooting it doesn't work, I know what will," Ryou said frantically, dialing a number on the phone.  
  
A man in a dirty yellow suit came in a matter of minutes. He carried a huge toolbox full of foul smelling liquids and pointy objects. Bakura's eyes widened, and he whispered wistfully to his hikari, "I want to get a job as whatever he is..."  
  
Ryou shushed him. The man walked up to Ryou and shook hands with him first, and then Bakura, introducing himself as Stan. He was a very professional guy, but he was kind, too, and Ryou spent a long while discussing perennials with him. When they went into the house, Stan told them a little about his job.  
  
"I'm a plant exterminator," he said, patting the box. "I've got enough poison in here to kill a city." He winked.  
  
Bakura wouldn't let him off that easy. "What kind of poison?" he said gruffly.  
  
"Well, several kinds, I suppose..." and he was off on a complicated discussion with Bakura which Ryou found hard to follow, so he politely nodded and said "Is that good or bad?" every once and a while. Ryou finally left and served breakfast for the three of them. Stan had abandoned his professional manner by now; he talked with Ryou and Bakura like they were old friends.  
  
"And that's exactly what happened! I tried to tell her she didn't need one, but..." Stan laughed after concluding a story. The other two were cracking up.  
  
"Yes, well, what else could you expect... Say..." Ryou said, smiling, and checking the clock on the wall. "Wow, it's been two hours!"  
  
Stan tilted his cap. "Gee, I didn't even notice! Well, I should probably get to work. Can you show me to the yard?"  
  
"Sure thing," Ryou said, standing up and walking outside. Stan automatically moved to a dying tree in the corner of the yard, but Ryou called him back toward the rosebush.  
  
"This one," he said.  
  
"This one?" Stan questioned, pointing at the bush. "Why, it's nice and healthy! Why would you want to..."  
  
"Have you ever been stung buy a hundred bees, Stan? How about slapped by a bunch of eight inch long spikes on a stem?" Bakura said, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Stan tilted his cap again. "No, I haven't," he said, then dug a pointy rod similar to an oversized syringe out of his box. "If that's the pain this bush is causing, I guess it has to go..."  
  
He filled the rod with liquid, then put on some heavy-duty gloves. Ryou took a timid step backwards. Stan then broke into cheerful conversation as he looked for an appropriate spot to inject the poison into the bush.  
  
Bakura's nose quivered. Blood again. He sought out a rose, and found it had just started dripping. Not any blood, but black blood. Bakura decided not to mention it to Stan, who might not want to get near it if he told him. He'd rather Stan just kill the bush, and then they could get on with their lives.  
  
Not all of them would get on with their lives, however. At that moment, as Stan had cheerfully said his last words, "Never seen anything like it," the bush decided it did not want the pointy syringe anywhere near it. Ryou, expecting an onslaught, warned Stan to move out of the way. But the branches never came crashing down upon his back. Instead, the roses did. The bush shed about half of the black blood covered roses into a shower on Stan. It couldn't have hurt him. It couldn't have...  
  
Something odd, or as Bakura would say, screwy, happened to Stan. As soon as the blood touched him, he froze. He tried to stand up but only got half way before he was completely stopped in his tracks. Then, his shoes and legs hardened and began to scab. It looked exactly like the bark of a tree. A loud crackling sound was heard as this effect crept up his entire body until there was nothing left of Stan but a tree trunk. His face was contorted with fear, but he would never be able to scream.  
  
As Ryou and Bakura stood in horror, they could almost hear the rosebush laugh.  
  
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MG: Poor poor Stan... muahahaha...  
  
Seto: You are EVIL. You're worse than Malik.  
  
MG: Yeah, well, you haven't exactly seen Malik write a story, have you?  
  
Seto: No, but I'm sure there wouldn't be as much violen... wait, what am I saying?  
  
MG: That's what I thought! Anyway, please review! (  
  
Flight Attendant: Sssss...  
  
Seto: o.O;; Oh um hey, long time no see... (runs off) 


	5. Shadows

MilleniumGirl: Hi! Because I feel like it, I'm putting responses to all of the AWESOME reviews I got last chapter!

Maruken–Thank you for the compliment! And about Stan... Heh, I made him likable so it would come as a shock when I KILLED HIM! I mean, um, yeah...

Blue-Eyez-White-Dragon – Lolololol!!!!

DreamingChild – That would be smart, no? But still, if he sold the house I couldn't have a dramatic ending!

Jedi Spiderfan – Thank you, and it will be about the same length, I think, maybe a chapter or two more...! O.K., so it will be longer.

lilmatchgirl – Heheheh... yes, it was!

Rowan Girl –Ok! I'll put these out as fast as I can!

yla/all4him– Thank you!!!

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Ryou's first reaction was to freak out. "Stan? STAN?" he screamed pointlessly to the tree. "STAN, ARE YOU..."

"Ryou! Stop screaming!" Bakura said, dragging Ryou away from "Stan." "It won't help. Nothing can help."

Ryou began to shake. "But what... how..." he said, confused and frightened.

"He's dead," Bakura said, forgetting to be comforting. Ryou yelled again and leapt farther away from the rosebush. Bakura wasn't upset a great deal over Stan's death... He was only another foolish mortal, after all. Then he looked to his frightened little hikari. He is just a mortal...

The rosebush may want him next.

Bakura shook his head angrily at such thoughts. The rosebush would be dead in a matter of minutes; there was no chance of it killing anyone else. Stan was a great man who left behind great things...

Bakura grabbed the syringe full of plant poison. Ryou fell silent. Bakura advanced toward the bush with his weapon out like a lance. He was about to strike the bush when he felt himself being pulled backwards.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Ryou yelled. "Do you want to be turned into a tree? Don't get near it! There's got to be another way to kill it!"

Bakura laughed and pushed Ryou off. "It can't hurt me! This is me we're talking about!"

"Right, and so you can fight off whatever that bush did to Stan? You can stop that from happening if that horrible plant leaks that black blood on you? Well, if you think you can, go right ahead. But if it turns you into a tree I won't be able to hold a funeral for you, because I will be locked inside the house," Ryou panted.

Bakura raised an eyebrow.

"Oh..." Ryou said. "I'm sorry, that just came out..."

"No, you have a point. You would lock yourself in the house..." he murmured.

Ryou exploded. "But... Of course I would! There would be two dead... tree things in the backyard and a homicidal... well, it can't be homicidal, but, a MURDERING ROSEBUSH, and that wasn't even my point..."

Bakura rolled his eyes and let Ryou talk himself out. He had dropped the syringe. His hikari was right; there was probably a better way to kill the thing without putting himself in danger. Of course, there were probably more ways to put him in danger then he knew about.  
  
In an act of anger to the rosebush, Bakura picked up Stan's box and threw it at the rosebush.  
  
The bush split in two, revealing a large mouth like that of a venus fly trap, except with longer, more deadly spikes and a blood red tongue the size of an elephant's trunk. The mouth opened and the box fell in. The tongue then wrapped itself around Stan and ripped him out of the ground with ease. The mouth swallowed Stan. Then the bush promptly closed itself back up.  
  
Ryou had stopped talking.  
  
Bakura took two large steps backward. "Damn," he muttered under his breath.  
  
Ryou was too shocked to yell. He inched behind Bakura and whispered, "What is this thing?"  
  
"THAT MAN'S FAULT, that's what it is!!!" Bakura yelled, leaping up so fast that Ryou fell over behind him.  
  
"Whose fault?" Ryou said shakily, remaining on the ground.  
  
"The idiot who gave it to us!" Bakura said, picking Ryou up by the scruff of his neck. "He must have done something to it!"  
  
"No, 'Kura..." Ryou said thoughtfully, rubbing his neck. "He was scared of it too..."  
  
The bush rustled a little, causing Ryou to yelp and run behind Bakura.  
  
"So you mean that bastard gave it to us because he wanted to get rid of it?!?" Bakura said angrily.  
  
"Yes..." Ryou said cautiously. His yami was not in the best of moods. Bakura uttered a long string of cuss words and almost tried to kick the bush, but Ryou was on him in seconds.  
  
"Wait! I've got an idea!" Ryou said finally, now having retreated to the far side of the yard.  
  
"What? Hide inside the house?" Bakura said, entertaining himself by throwing rocks at the bush. The mouth would swallow anything he threw at it.  
  
"'Kura, don't do that. My idea is to have Malik come... you two could work together to... I don't know, send the bush to the Shadow Realm or something..." Ryou said, fiddling with his hair and longing to go inside.  
  
Bakura whipped around so fast he missed the rosebush with the rock. "What? So know you're saying I have to 'work together' to do something I'm fully capable of doing myself?"  
  
"No, I'm just saying it would be more effective it both of you used shadow powers against the bush..."  
  
Bakura thought for a moment. "Fine. Go in and call him. And if you don't come back out I'll stab the rosebush with the syringe."  
  
On the other side of the yard, the tongue protruded from the bush and took the syringe back inside to the mouth.  
  
"I don't think the poison hurts it at all," Ryou said, pausing on the steps back inside the house.  
  
"No, really? I would think if it swallowed that whole box of poison I threw at it, it wouldn't be hurt by poison," Bakura said dryly.  
  
Ryou said, "Oh," in a defeated tone of voice and ran the rest of the way inside the house.  
  
Bakura threw pinecones into the bush's mouth until one of the pinecones came soaring back at him and hit him in the face.  
  
"DAMNNIT!" he yelled as Ryou walked into the backyard. "THE BUSH SPIT THE PINECONE AT ME!"  
  
"That's why I said not to throw stuff at it. Malik said he'd be right over," Ryou said, trying to pry Bakura's hand off his face to inspect the damage.  
  
A loud crash from inside the house signaled that Malik had showed up. He walked into the backyard, followed by Marik, who was looking at the bush in awe.  
  
"Malik," Ryou said angrily, "Please use the door next time, O.K.?"  
  
Malik snorted.  
  
"Whoa," Marik said, inching toward the bush a little. "That thing's way bigger than when I first saw it. And the roses are different, aren't they?"  
  
"Watch what it can do," Bakura said, tossing a rock at it. Marik and Malik witnessed the bush's eating habits with wide eyes.  
  
"'Kura, it'll spit at you again, and I wouldn't encourage it to open its mouth so much," Ryou said fearfully.  
  
Bakura rolled his eyes. "I'm not worried. It doesn't scare me. Hikaris are paranoid, aren't they, Malik?"  
  
Malik nodded. "So, can we send it to the Shadow Realm now? I love it when things go to the Shadow Realm..."  
  
Malik and Bakura laughed.  
  
Marik laughed a little. "Don't worry, it looks like they've got it under control."  
  
Ryou relaxed slightly. "Yes... it ate someone, did I mention that? He was really nice, too..."  
  
Marik's eyes widened. "No kidding? Man, that is one freaky plant... I wonder what made it like that..."  
  
"Who cares? As soon as its gone, I won't have to think about it anymore," Ryou shuddered.  
  
The hikaris watched as their yamis concentrated on the bush. There was a dim light coming from each oh them. Then, the bush exploded into blackness. Bakura and Malik laughed as they watched shreds disappear into nothingness.  
  
"All gone," Malik said happily. "Do I get paid, or..."  
  
His joke was cut short when both yamis whipped around again, clutching their hands over their ears.  
  
"What is that sound?" Bakura said, peering at the spot where the bush had been.  
  
Ryou and Marik could hear nothing. They could only stand and watch, confused.  
  
"THE BUSH HAS REJECTED THE SHADOWS!" Malik yelled over the noise only he and Bakura could hear.  
  
Then, as if in reverse effect to the explosion that had taken place, pieces sprang out of thin air and bound themselves together.  
  
A larger, more ominous rosebush with pitch black roses and a clearly visible mouth, now wide open as it took a breath of air, was standing where it had been moments before.  
  
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MG: Heheheheheheheh...  
  
DisclaimerBot: PROCESSING... PROCESSING...  
  
MG: (fwaps DisclaimerBot) Well, there's a chapter! Oh yes, I am so evil...  
  
DisclaimerBot: PROCESSING...  
  
MG: (sighs) BIG EVIL PLANT ROSEBUSH THING?  
  
Rosebush: (eats DisclaimerBot)  
  
MG: Thank you!  
  
Rosebush: (tongue reaches out toward MG)  
  
MG: Um... heh... oh, please review and make sure you come back for the next chapter, or two, or whatever... (runs away)


	6. Hunger

MilleniumGirl: Hello! Oh, I was going to put all the reviewers' names in here, but my sis is on my internet computer... GRRR... Oh, and PotatoDragon, I read your review and thought "yes yes YES!" so I went and drew an evil mutant rosebush piccy. It's at my account at www.Fanart-central.net (My username is also MilleniumGirl) if anyone wanted to see it!  
  
DisclaimerBot 2.0: DOESN'T YU-GI-OH MG OWN, DGKFDAKNB, ERROR ERROR, ïïïïïï®ï®ï®ï¤ï¤  
  
MG: Ugh, not this one too... ROSEBUSH! Can you eat this...?  
  
Rosebush: (spits DisclaimerBot back out)  
  
DisclaimerBot & DisclaimerBot 2.0: ERROR ERROR ERROR, auhsfb.  
  
MG: UUUGHH...  
  
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"Damn."  
  
The four stood still and looked to the bush. The yamis had noticed the absence of the noise and stood upright again, moving several steps backwards.  
  
"Are you trying to say... the shadows didn't even want this thing?" Ryou said timidly.  
  
"Yes, hikari, that's it exactly," Bakura said angrily. "That bush is not an ordinary plant, Ryou."  
  
"I kind of admire it," Malik said, smiling evilly. "It knows how to put up a struggle. Not most plants do. They're brainless," he said, using the Millennium Rod to blast a hole in one of Ryou's katsura trees.  
  
"MALIK!" Ryou yelled. "Don't do that!"  
  
"Brainless indeed. Maybe this bush is brainless too; it just does these odd things out of impulse..." Bakura said, rubbing the back of his neck. He was saying this more to comfort his hikari then anyone, even though it wasn't true. This plant had a mind of its own, but if Ryou figured that out he would flip.  
  
As if in response to the "brainless" comment, one of the bush's limbs whipped out dangerously close to Ryou, who yelled and hid behind Bakura.  
  
"Don't yell, Ryou, you'll provoke it. Look, it won't hurt not to hide behind something, either..."Bakura said, rolling his eyes.  
  
Malik and Marik watched as Bakura carelessly shoved his hikari in the small of the back toward the rosebush. Ryou was shaking, but he did not show signs of resisting. He might have been afraid to resist.  
  
Hi yami was not a person to talk back to or resist; Ryou knew this from experience, and had scars to prove the times he did. Of course, his yami did not need a reason to beat him. He would just let loose on him one night, be calm the next, sarcastic another... Ryou never knew if he should have a discussion with him or hide from him. He usually resorted to hiding.  
  
A sudden image of himself lying on the floor covered in blood came to mind. He shook his head and dug his heels into the ground slightly. Ryou did not want any closer to that rosebush. Bakura's hand applied more pressure to his back.  
  
"Ryou, it won't hurt you when it's this far away..."  
  
Marik did not like the look of this. Either Yami Bakura was stupid, or he was trying to feed his hikari to the rosebush.  
  
"M-Malik..." Marik said, turning his head away. "I'm going."  
  
"Where?" Malik growled.  
  
"Somewhere. Away from here. That bush is giving me the creeps."  
  
"Go, then. I should like to stay."  
  
"Malik..."  
  
"What?" he snapped angrily.  
  
"The bush doesn't like you, remember?"  
  
Malik paused, remembering the branch sinking into his flesh. Now that the branches and spikes were several times longer... Since when was he taking his hikari's advice? But nonetheless, he bid goodbye to Bakura and a frightened looking Ryou. Marik was already out the door and could not say his goodbyes.  
  
Bakura snorted when Malik was out of sight. "Coward."  
  
"If he's a coward, then what am I?" Ryou said, trying to back into his yami, but Bakura's hand remained pushing him forward.  
  
"You're a bigger coward who needs to go stand right there," Bakura said, placing Ryou in a more then uncomfortable place near the rosebush. "See? It's not going to hurt you. It hurt me and Malik and Stan, but that's because we touched it. Somewhat."  
  
Bakura walked to the lawn chairs a distance away. Ryou made a move to run over there as well, but Bakura growled "STAY." Ryou stopped in his tracks.  
  
Ryou watched as a pinecone flew over his head and into the rosebush. He got a close-up view of the tongue and mouth as they swallowed the flying pinecone.  
  
Bakura was fascinated. He could recognize when animals, or plants in this case, were hungry. The bush wanted food. He threw another pinecone at it. How much could this thing eat?  
  
"Yami?" Ryou called nervously from across the yard. "P-please don't do that; it looks like it wants to eat more now that you're feeding it."  
  
"It can eat you, then," Bakura said in a joking voice. He called for Ryou to come over to where he was sitting.  
  
But he had given the bush an invitation.  
  
All the branches turned toward Ryou, spikes facing toward him. Then the head of the plant turned as well and its tongue slipped out between the jaws. Ryou had been looking at Bakura, but he slowly turned around to face the plant.  
  
And because Bakura had told him to stay, he stood and went pale, his hands to his mouth.  
  
"RYOU! MOVE!" Bakura shouted. The plant was leaning over slightly, as if it was going to skewer Ryou on its spikes. The mouth had opened and the tongue was reaching out.  
  
Ryou was too scared to move, like a deer caught in headlights.  
  
A saliva like substance was dripping from the tongue. It wanted flesh.  
  
Bakura rushed over and threw his hikari over himself, making an all out dash to the porch. The plant crashed upon the spot where Ryou had been standing, and quickly picked itself back up. It made a shrill, angry noise at having lost its meal.  
  
For the moment.  
  
Ryou was breathing heavily and was trying to thank Bakura but couldn't grasp the words. Bakura was watching the plant as it turned toward them and growled.  
  
"It can't reach us here," he breathed.  
  
He was wrong. The head withdrew inside the bush momentarily, then came back out. In its mouth was a large amount of spikes and roses that it had ripped off of itself. It was going to spit them at the two on the porch. Bakura gasped and ran to the door to the house, wrenching it open and making a move to slam it shut. But his hikari was still lying on the steps. He sighed and ran back for him, tossing him unceremoniously into the house.  
  
"Hikari, you've got to learn to move when you're in danger. Do I have to teach you that the hard way?"  
  
"N-no..." Ryou stuttered. He was shocked that he had almost been eaten. "Yami, we have to leave."  
  
"Leave where?" Bakura answered, still watching the plant in the backyard. It was furious that its prey had gone inside.  
  
"Leave this house. We have to get out of here."  
  
Bakura laughed. "You are so recessive. It's pathetic, but sweet, too..."  
  
Oh no. Time to hide, Ryou thought.  
  
"Stay where you are," Bakura growled. "I'm not done with you."  
  
Ryou shook slightly as Bakura approached him. It was dark out now, and this was effecting Bakura. The dark changed his attitude. It made him more of a yami. Ryou wanted badly to run out into the front yard, and then keep running, away from the rosebush and the man who had been acting so normal hours before...  
  
"Please don't hurt me..." Ryou said, cowering slightly.  
  
Bakura laughed again. "You need to learn not to be afraid. That bush is evil, no doubt, but I am not afraid of it! It is a thing of beauty to me."  
  
"It scares me," Ryou said, trying not to look out the window. The plant might be waiting for him.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It just does! It's a scary thing, and you told it that it could eat me...."  
  
An evil smile pulled up the corners of Bakura's lips. "I wasn't really going to let it eat you..."  
  
Ryou shivered, then held perfectly still as Bakura took his face in one hand and put his other hand on Ryou's heart.  
  
"Your heart is beating like a rabbit's. Tell me, my little rabbit, are you afraid of death?"  
  
Ryou was even afraid to answer him. One wrong word and his yami would strike him.  
  
But Ryou was saved answering when a spike came crashing through the kitchen window. The glass clattered to the floor, and Bakura stepped over it to examine what had just happened. He guessed that the rosebush had launched a spike at the window. But as he discovered by looking out the window, the rosebush had stretched out its branches and was attempting to attack them from inside the house. Bakura yanked at the limb and grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen counter to sever it. Blood spewed everywhere, and Ryou took this distraction as an opportunity to hide in his bedroom. But he was grabbed around the middle by Bakura, who was holding a knife and a bloody rosebush branch in his other hand.  
  
"Foolish hikari, think about where you're going. If you went into your bedroom, the rosebush has plain sight of you," he said dryly. Ryou was relieved to see that his yami had lost interest in torturing him for the night.  
  
"I didn't even think about that..."  
  
"If you're so scared of it, sleep in the living room," Bakura snapped, then began licking the blood off the knife. Ryou stared at him in disgust.  
  
"Go to bed," Bakura growled at him. Ryou walked to the couch and curled up in a ball. There was no way he'd be able to get to sleep. Either his yami would kill him or the rosebush would...  
  
He ended up asleep in five minutes, worn out from the day's events. Bakura looked out on the lawn, and found it hard to pick out the shape of the rosebush, but when he did he found it still and quiet. Bakura tried to watch TV but found it boring. A thought occurred that he should actually sleep tonight. He shrugged to himself and sat on the couch next to his sleeping hikari. So innocent...  
  
The yami closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.  
  
Meanwhile, on the lawn, the rosebush wasn't as still as Bakura had surmised. In fact, it was growing. The bush itself was growing in size, but the head was growing hungrier...  
  
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MG: Chappie! Kinda longish-shortish... I typed it really fast and didn't edit it very well so if you see a mistake, can you please tell me? Well, this story's going to be longer then I thought!  
  
Bakura: Great. Can I just kick the rosebush? It'd be so much easier...  
  
MG: Kick it?  
  
Bakura: Yeah, and all the leaves would come off...  
  
MG: If you really want to kick it, I'll make you kick it in the next chapter.  
  
Bakura: Umm... nevermind.  
  
MG: That's what I thought! Thanks for reading, and please review! Thanks again to everyone who already did!!!  
  
DisclaimerBot & DisclaimerBot 2.0: KIUHGKUbkagfkaj Iusd Osihf  
  
MG: (sighs) 


	7. The Greenhouse Effect

MG: WELCOME BACK!!!!! YOU ROCK, REVIEWERS!!!!  
  
George: Yay, go reviewers! By the way, what are reviewers?  
  
MG: I was happy to see that a certain reviewer remembered the plant was like this because it got struck by lightning... That may be important... I hope I didn't give anything away just there...  
  
George: I could have told you that! And what's a reviewer?  
  
MG: Do the disclaimer, George.  
  
George: The what?  
  
DisclaimerBot (attacks George) DOESN'T OWN YU-GI-OH DOESN'T OWN YU-GI-OH  
  
MG: Thank you...?  
  
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It wasn't even morning when Ryou woke up. The dim light of the clock on the stove flashed 2:06. He yawned and stretched and tried to go back to sleep, but found it was uncomfortably humid. Crawling over Bakura carefully so as not to wake him, Ryou made his way to the thermostat in the hallway. He expected 80º at least. But he was shocked to find that it read a slight 45º. Why was it so hot? He shook his hair out of his face. Maybe he was hot, like he was catching the flu or something. He didn't feel sick, though.  
  
He toyed with the thermostat, finally getting the AC to work and watching the degrees drop to 38. It was supposed to be freezing by now. Ryou sighed and decided to see if his yami was hot, too.  
  
"Bakura," he said, shaking him gently. "Bakura!"  
  
"Mmph," was the response Ryou got.  
  
"'Kura, wake up!"  
  
"Get offa me, Pharaoh, or I'll inject you with paradichlorobenzene..."he muttered.  
  
"It's Ryou! Wake up!"  
  
"Hikari?" he said, finally opening his eyes.  
  
"Yeah, listen, 'Kura, is it hot, or is it just me?"  
  
"It's just you," he said, straightening and yawning widely. He made some chewing movements with his mouth, and then said, "Whoa, it's really hot in here."  
  
Ryou slapped his forehead.  
  
"Go turn the AC on," Bakura said,  
  
"I did. Apparently, it's 38 degrees in this house, but it feels like 90!" Ryou exclaimed.  
  
"It's a nice humidity, though. I'm used to it being like this in Egypt."  
  
"Yeah, well I'm not, and I want you to go see if you can figure out what's wrong with the thermostat."  
  
"Fine," he said blankly, still a little asleep. He went to the thermostat and looked at it for a few seconds.  
  
"Well?" his hikari said.  
  
"It's screwed," Bakura said, sitting back down on the couch. He flung himself over the rest of it so there was no room for another body. He was asleep in a few seconds.  
  
Ryou scoffed angrily, and tried to push him over, but gave up. He decided to go sleep in his room; it might be cooler in there with less body heat. He was about to lie in bed when he tripped over something and fell on his knees.  
  
"Rugburn..." he said absentmindedly as he inspected his knee. Then, he turned to where he had tripped. He reached out a hand and met a soft, fleshy like substance. Moving farther up, his hand touched something long and sharp, and he yelped and withdrew his hand. He gingerly reached back out. Ryou concluded that whatever he had tripped on had a fleshy, raw end, getting harder and bumpier as you went up. "Up" was toward his window, and when he looked at it, he saw it was blocked by something rather large.  
  
His heart started beating expeditiously. He thought maybe the object obscuring his window was his yami, who could have slipped past him...  
  
"'Kura?" he said weekly. Nothing moved. Still on the ground, he slowly reached out his hand and it landed on the fleshy part of the thing that tripped him.  
  
It was really hot, and Ryou applied pressure to the fleshy substance while he wiped the back of his neck with the other hand.  
  
It snapped up and coiled around his arm like a fat snake. Like when a worm stretches itself out, the thing managed to become long enough to reach all the way to his shoulder. The tip was prodding his neck, as if securing the next area to cling to.  
  
Ryou yelled and squirmed. The limb squeezed his arm powerfully. Ryou tried to free his arm, but realized it had it too tight. The pain forced him to flip over as he struggled to get out of its grasp.  
  
The he realized what it was, a little too late.  
  
The rosebush. It had grown so big over the past few hours that it could stick its limbs through the windows. He had been feeling the spike when he had felt something sharp.  
  
Ryou, still yelling, tried whacking the worm-like branch off of his left arm, which was by now numb. It squeezed tighter. The pain was so unbearable he wished the plant would just rip his arm off.  
  
He was rescued from this and any further thoughts by Bakura, who came charging into the dark room when he heard Ryou yell. He could easily pick his way through dark areas and was soon by Ryou's side, trying to calm him down.  
  
"AAAGGGH!" Ryou screamed, hacking at the branch some more.  
  
He stopped when Bakura grabbed his arm and whispered hoarsely to him, "Stop moving. Let me handle this."  
  
The limb was detached from Ryou's arm when Bakura pulled a steak knife on it. He hacked mercilessly at the part of the branch where the soft part started and the bark ended. The limb made a _splish _noise as it was severed in two. Juices and blood bubbled out of the end. Ryou took a long breath as the worm-like part fell off of his arm in a heap. His arm felt cold and rubbery, and when he touched it, only his fingers felt. The arm wouldn't move, either.  
  
"'Kura..." he said softly.  
  
"Sh-h, Ryou, let me see it," he said, surprisingly gentle. Bakura picked up the arm and pinched it. "Feel that?"  
  
"No," Ryou said quietly.  
  
Bakura rubbed the arm wherever he could find veins. Then he straightened out the fingers so the blood flow could return to them.  
  
"It tingles a little bit," Ryou said, amazed at how quickly his yami could fix it.  
  
"Yeah. What were you doing in here, anyway?" Bakura said, vengefully stabbing the upper branch with the steak knife.  
  
"I was hot... and you took the couch... then I tripped..." he said, a little dazed as the needles ran up and down his arm. It had a cooling effect, thought, so he was thankful for the return of the blood flow.  
  
Bakura sighed and picked Ryou up off the floor. "Fine, you have the couch, then. I'm going to go see where that thing came from."  
  
Ryou picked his way meticulously to the couch and sat down, watching the silhouette of his yami pause at the sliding door to the porch. He opened it slightly, and then slammed it shut. Ryou heard another_ splish_ noise. Bakura cursed and stamped at something with his foot. Then, he opened the door a little bit again, this time stepping over something to get out. He shut the door behind him.  
  
Ryou felt a shiver go up his spine. He waited for a few seconds, then dashed to the door and wrenched it open.  
  
"Bakura..." he started to call, but a hand was clamped over his mouth.  
  
"Why did you come out?" Bakura said, leaning over him ominously. Ryou could only mumble. "You can stay out here but you have to be quiet. It's sleeping," he growled to his hikari.  
  
Ryou had a faint idea what was sleeping. And then, looking up, he found out why it was so hot in the house.  
  
The rosebush had turned the house into a greenhouse. It was trapping all the heat inside. Gigantic limbs, as fat as a car, had grown on top of the roof to keep from letting any heat out. There was at least one branch in every window, and a particularly thick cluster around the AC vent. While it should have been 38 degrees inside, the plant had made it near 80. Ryou gasped.  
  
"You think that's bad? Look at the yard," Bakura growled.  
  
Ryou almost passed out. The entire yard and much of the garage was a sea of fat, spiky limbs. The main body of the plant was in the same place as before, except much larger. The head was certainly the scariest part. It looked like it could swallow a large tree whole.  
  
And of course, the big black roses were growing over the entire area. Going into the backyard would be walking into a death trap. In fact, they were in a lot of danger on the porch, which had stairs leading into the backyard. There were several smaller limbs climbing around where they were standing, and Bakura had to rip one in half after he caught it trying to coil around Ryou's ankle. The limbs were a little slow moving, but if one snuck up behind you...  
  
Ryou steadied himself with a rail, but he recoiled when a limb tip started prodding his hand. Everywhere he looked there was something growing. Even on his yami, who was battling a tiny little limb that had somehow managed to open the door.  
  
"What are we going to do?" Ryou said a scared voice.  
  
"I don't know... try the phone, maybe we can get the fire department or something to attack this thing..."  
  
Ryou ran into the house and started to pick up the phone when Bakura swiftly struck it out of his hand. Ryou made a confused noise, and Bakura explained by pointing to a branch that had grown over the power line.  
  
"It would've electrocuted you," he said, looking at the rosebush head. "It must have heard us. Damn..."  
  
Sure enough, the phone on the floor began to crackle. Bakura ripped the phone jack out of the wall and slammed the sliding door.  
  
_Splish._ Another limb mangled by the door.  
  
Ryou sank into a chair. Bakura sat next to him with a look of anger on his face.  
  
They were trapped in a house with a plant growing on it, and the plant did not seem to want for them escape. In fact, the plant didn't want them alive.  
  
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.  
  
MG: BUAHAHAHAHA...  
  
George: GET IT OFFA ME!!!  
  
MG: You ruined my hysteric laughter...  
  
George: THE ROBOT IS ATTACKING ME!!!!  
  
MG: ROSEBUSH!  
  
Rosebush: (spits out AC vent)  
  
George: Ouch.  
  
MG: Please review! (does happy dance) 


	8. And All Goes Dark

MilleniumGirl: I don't know whether I should say sorry or do a happy dance...  
  
DisclaimerBot: ïï³ï¶ï¨ï¡ï°ï¡ï¥ï©ï²ï°ï²  
  
MG: I mean, this story... it's weird, and it doesn't make sense! (dramatic soap opera music)  
  
DisclaimerBot: ?..,..."{}  
  
MG: But... I'm really happy that the reviewers reviewed!  
  
DisclaimerBot: &""""? --  
  
MG: Yes, that's always it, isn't it, DisclaimerBot? And to tell you the horrible truth...  
  
Rosebush: What?  
  
MG: I... DON'T OWN YU-GI-OH! (sobbing)  
  
Rosebush: OH, THE SADNESS!  
  
MG: ;;  
  
DisclaimerBot: 66;;;; (Translation: She's a nutcase...)  
  
Rosebush: (makes growling plant noises) (Translation: Tell me about it...)  
  
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.  
  
The silence was frightening. Ryou felt liquid run down his face and onto the scratchy brown surface of the chair. Whether it was sweat of fear, he did not know. The roof creaked slightly, and Ryou's eyes met with a branch on the outside of a window. It was like a spider or a snake, just creeping and slithering along. He rubbed his left arm and scooted more to the edge of the chair.  
  
"Bakura," he said quietly. The room seemed like a fragile box. One loud noise, and Ryou imagined the roof crashing down, the plant squeezing he and his yami to death like a boa constrictor...  
  
"Hmm," Bakura said in a hoarse whisper. He was staring out the window.  
  
"We have to try to leave the house. Then we can try to buy back our old apartment or something..."  
  
Bakura shook his head no.  
  
Ryou pleaded. "But let's just try, O.K.? I think I might get heat stroke or something if we stay in here any longer..."  
  
"Oh, yes, little one, rather then risk that, let's try and kill us both by escaping."  
  
"But... what else can we do?"  
  
"Kill it, Ryou. We have to find out how to kill it."  
  
Ryou sighed heavily. It just wouldn't die, that thing, and Bakura knew it.  
  
"How?"  
  
"I don't know, something! There must be a way to kill it!" he sighed angrily. "Help me look for something."  
  
Ryou switched on the lamp beside him and followed his yami around the living room. Bakura wrenched open every drawer in the credenza, making Ryou hold random objects as he dug through the piles of things.  
  
"Dictionary. Paper. Cards. Broken light bulb..." he muttered, throwing things over his shoulder. "Stick-ish thingy, candle, old battery with white stuff around the edges, glue gun..." He paused, then shoved a pile of papers into Ryou's hands. "Glue gun."  
  
"Glue gun? I seriously doubt..."  
  
"You got any better ideas?" he snapped, then sighed and through the glue gun aside.  
  
"It's so hot..." Ryou said, sitting on the floor and dropping the papers beside him. "Can't you just send the limbs on the top of the house to the Shadow Realm?"  
  
"No. Box, another candle, MY STAPLE REMOVER, I've been looking for this..."  
  
"Can you send a distress signal to the neighbors?"  
  
"None of them are up at this hour, hikari. Damn pen is stuck in the top of the drawer..."  
  
"Can you..."  
  
But Ryou never finished the sentence. The light that was on next to the chair flickered and died. The purr of the fridge wheeled down to silence. They could have kept cool by the fridge... but now it was too late for that. The clocks went off, the ceiling lamp froze, and Ryou was surrounded by darkness.  
  
"Oh no..." he said, opening his eyes wide to see if they would let in any more light.  
  
"Paper, MORE PAPER, damn, we could give the bush the world's biggest paper cut with all this... Hold this for me, hikari."  
  
"I can't see it, 'Kura!"  
  
Bakura then noticed the greenish-yellowish tint the room was giving off. "Oh, the lights are off..."  
  
"Yes, and one of us happens to not be nocturnal... Oh, this is a disaster..." Ryou jumped when the roof creaked again. He tried to be optimistic, but when thunder shook the windows and rain fell, he failed to hold back a whimper. The rain beats on the plant limbs gave off an odd unfamiliar noise. Ryou took a deep breath. It was like being back in his room a few minutes ago, when he could see nothing but shadows.  
  
"Yami, where's that candle you threw on the floor?"  
  
"Stick your hand out to your left and go towards me a little bit."  
  
Ryou felt the cool, honey-combed wax and grabbed the candle.  
  
"Can you find a match while you're digging in there?"  
  
"Hikari, feel the top of that candle and tell me why a match won't help you."  
  
Ryou snorted. He could just tell me what was wrong, I'd be able to understand him, he thought angrily. But he sighed nonetheless when he felt the absence of a wick on the candle.  
  
"'Kura, can you find another candle? I can't see a thing and it's really weird..."  
  
"Soap? A highlighter, an envelope opener... Wait, hikari, take this for protection," Bakura said, taking Ryou's hand and putting the pointy metal object inside it.  
  
"Wha?" Ryou said, startled. He then felt it and held it out in front of him like a spear. "Right, I could fight off the plant limbs with this! If I could see the plant limbs..."  
  
Bakura laughed at the small, dull blade. "Hikari, where do you keep the streak knives? I had that one, but I stole it before you hid the rest..."  
  
"Well... oh shoot, I guess I have to tell you... they're in that one drawer that's underneath the..."  
  
"Stop," Bakura said, holding out his hand and shaking his head. "You have to show me. I'm not good with directions."  
  
"I can't see where I am!"  
  
"Do I have to do everything for you?" he sighed, and took the Millennium Ring off of his neck. He then put it around Ryou's neck, and disappeared in a flash of light. Ryou felt that cold, formidable, yet familiar feeling when his yami is inside him.  
  
::Can you see now?:: Bakura said from inside.  
  
::Yeah! Good grief, why is everything green?:: Ryou said, having gained Bakura's nocturnal vision. ::How weird!:: he said, rubbing his eyes.  
  
::Seeing is weird to you, and so is not seeing...:: Bakura said with slight disgust. ::Hurry up, Ryou, I don't know how long I can let you see like this.::  
  
::YAMI BAKURA! LOOK AT THE MESS YOU MADE!::  
  
::I'll deal with it later, damnit! Just get those knives!::  
  
Ryou stepped over the clutter on the floor and into the kitchen. He reached to a small door on the underside of the oven and made a move to pull it open. It creaked stubbornly but would not come.  
  
::Ugh...:: Ryou sighed, pulling with both hands.  
  
::Ryou, if you need an inspiration to move faster, look behind you.::  
  
Ryou, despite his better judgement, turned around. He yelled as he saw two large plant limbs had somehow broken through the glass door and were prodding their way around the kitchen. Even though they had no eyes, the head of the rosebush could sense vibrations through the worm-like limbs, and Ryou's body was giving off quite a few of those.  
  
::Hikari, you're such a slowpoke! Hurry up!::  
  
::It won't come open! Hey, what... OUCH!::  
  
He yelled as his yami took over with no warning. Forgetting Ryou had the envelope opener in his hand, he had leaned forward and cut Ryou's arm accidentally.  
  
::BAKURA! THAT WAS MY HURT ARM!::  
  
::Sorry, now stop yelling at me, the limbs know where we are now... Hey, you don't even have to be here anymore...::  
  
::What exactly is that supposed to m...:: Ryou said, but his presence was flung out of Bakura and onto the hard kitchen tile.  
  
"TELL ME BEF..." he was about to yell, but Bakura slapped a hand over his mouth. Being blinded by the darkness, Ryou struggled against the hand until he realized whose it was. He felt the Ring slide off his neck, and a voice growl "Stay."  
  
Bakura left his blind hikari sitting on the floor and advanced toward the limbs, who were poking the ground with their fleshy tips. They sensed a body moving towards them, and grabbed wildly around like thrashing snakes. Bakura now had an idea after watching their attack pattern.  
  
"Ryou," he whispered.  
  
"Yes?" his hikari replied in a scared little voice that would make the sweeter of folks want to hug him.  
  
"Make noises. The plant will get confused."  
  
"What kind of noises?"  
  
"I don't know, just jump up and down or something."  
  
"I'm afraid I'll crash into that drawer if I stand up."  
  
"You're nowhere near it."  
  
"Do you have those knives?"  
  
"A couple of them. Now do as I say."  
  
Ryou started to timidly get to his feet. Bakura rolled his eyes and picked Ryou up off the floor with one hand. Ryou yelped but calmed down after his yami shushed him. Then he started jumping.  
  
It worked. The plant limbs turned in his direction, thinking he was closer, and lashed out. Of course, stretching out gave Bakura a closer shot at the veins, and he stabbed both of his knives into the middle of one of the limbs. The branch squirmed and flopped and withdrew out onto the porch, where it came to rest in the rain. Thunder boomed again.  
  
Ryou had stopped jumping.  
  
Bakura was about to bark at him for not distracting the branches. But when he saw where Ryou was, he understood why he probably shouldn't make noise.  
  
He was backed into the fridge with a strained look on his face. Sweat trickled down his cheek. Directly in front of him within touching distance was the other branch, prodding the ground, searching for the source of noise.  
  
Bakura advanced on it slowly. If he made a sudden move the limb would lurch forward and attack his hikari. Why were these things always trying to kill his hikari?  
  
Ryou was petrified. This was even scarier then when he had been in his room. Of course, fighting with the plant in his room he had not known that they were sensitive to sound vibrations. Now, trying to be perfectly still was horrifying. He was blind and helpless. He could sense the plant, and could hear a soft thud every time it touched the ground. If it made contact with any part of him, he would be in for it. And he couldn't even call for help. For all he knew, his yami had gone outside.  
  
Bakura was advancing closer, his eyes not on his helpless hikari, but the limb inches away from Ryou's foot.  
  
Ryou remembered his envelope opener. It was worth a try, and Bakura couldn't get mad at him for using it wrong if he wasn't there...  
  
Ryou slowly brought the point up in the air. The limb felt the movement and paused momentarily.  
  
Bakura saw what he was trying to do, but there was no guaranteeing his hikari could hit the vein in the right place. Did he even know there was a right place?  
  
Ryou stabbed downward...  
  
But he missed the limb by a few inches.  
  
"RYOU BAKURA, YOU FOOL! RUN FOR IT!" Bakura yelled to him as the limb began smacking wildly about, hoping to grab something in the process.  
  
Stunned that his yami had been there the whole time, he did not move quickly enough, and the limb found his ankle. Then he decided to run, which made his situation even worse. The limb grabbed tighter and tripped him, then decided it would slither on top of him.  
  
Bakura was afraid he would skewer his hikari, too, if he hit the limb from the top. He decided to go at it from the side and hope it didn't move.  
  
But underneath the limb, Ryou had gotten hold of his envelope opener and stabbed at the tip, which was seeking to go higher and wrap around his whole body. Luckily, he had hit the vein, and he winced as blood and a greenish liquid bubbled onto him.  
  
Bakura was shocked. The limb had killed itself somehow? But then he saw his hikari crawl out from underneath it.  
  
"Did you kill it?" Bakura said amazed.  
  
"Yeah, I did... EWWW!" he said, trying to rub his face off.  
  
"You actually stabbed a living thing?"  
  
"Well, if you're mean about it, maybe I won't kill things anymore!" Ryou said angrily, looking for a dishtowel but stumbling over him yami's feet accidentally.  
  
Bakura grabbed the scruff of his neck and held him up to eye level. "You actually stabbed it with that worthless little envelope opener I gave you? Wow, these branches are flimsier then I thought..." He dropped his hikari back on the floor, who miraculously landed on his feet. The branch on the floor slithered outside and lay still on the wet porch.  
  
"We could just go around and kill off those branches. They would fall off the roof if we stabbed them all," Ryou said, patiently letting his yami wipe the blood off of his face and lick it.  
  
"Yes... the one's on the roof are bigger though. And there's more of them," Bakura said absentmindedly. When all the blood off of his hikari's face was gone, he remembered he had left one of his knives inside a limb, and ran outside into the rain.  
  
"'Kura?" Ryou said, realizing he had been left in the dark again. He sat on the floor and sighed.  
  
Bakura grabbed his knife out of the dead branch, then stepped over broken shards of glass to go back inside. When he came into the kitchen, he saw his hikari looking excited.  
  
"What?" he said gruffly.  
  
"I had an idea! I know how we can find out how to kill this thing!" he said excitedly. He couldn't see his yami at all but he could smell the rain on him.  
  
"Huh?" Bakura said, amused at how he could walk to one side of his hikari and Ryou would still be facing the other way, talking to him.  
  
"We could find that guy who gave it to us! He could tell us how it was created, and we could find a way to counteract that!" Ryou realized his yami was behind him, and he turned to face him.  
  
Bakura walked behind him again. "So... how are we supposed to do that if we can't leave the house...?"  
  
"Well, what about the Millennium Ring?" Ryou said. Bakura stopped and fingered the Ring around his neck, thinking.  
  
"That's not a bad idea. The Ring will tell me where he is, and then..."  
  
"Oh, yes, then what..." Ryou sighed.  
  
"I could focus on sending him to the Shadow Realm, and talk to him there."  
  
Ryou paused. Usually he disapproved of his yami sending innocent people to the Shadow Realm, but this was an exception. This was a life or death matter.  
  
"I suppose so."  
  
Bakura nodded and held the Millennium Ring flat like a compass. The point farthest away from him lit up and pointed forward.  
  
Ryou could see a dim light now, and he applauded it.  
  
"Good! This thing will be dead in no time."  
  
The rosebush had heard the last part of the conversation, and it did not approve of it...  
  
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::.  
  
MG: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA  
  
DisclaimerBot: woof woof  
  
MG: Anyhoo, please review, and thanks to all my awesome reviewers! And all those people who put the story on their favorites list!!!!  
  
DisclaimerBot: &&&88){""" Woof  
  
MG: (sigh) Piece of junk... (stabs it with an envelope opener)  
  
DisclaimerBot: (makes screeching noise and retreats into the shadows)  
  
MG: ... 


	9. George

MilleniumGirl: Hi! Glad to see you all back! Especially you reviewers; you guys are what make me keep writing this!  
  
George: So... if they didn't review, you wouldn't write?  
  
MG: Well... if no one had reviewed, I wouldn't write another chapter, 'cause I'd think they had hated it, so yeah, I wouldn't write.  
  
George: Hey... you reviewers... how much d'you want if I pay you not to come back...  
  
MG: GET IN THE STORY, NOW, GEORGE! Honestly, giving my readers bad ideas...  
  
DisclaimerBot: Ho-ig-uy nwo t'nseod GM.  
  
MG: OMG! DisclaimerBot actually did the disclaimer right! Even though it was backwards... Good enough?  
  
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.  
  
"Can you see him?"  
  
"QUIET, hikari, let me concentrate..."  
  
Bakura and Ryou were sitting on the living room floor in the dim light of the Millennium Ring. Ryou's pupils had grown to a large size from trying to catch as much light as possible. Bakura wiped sweat from his face as he shut his eyes and let the Ring guide him to George's soul.  
  
"How about now?"  
  
"SH-H!!" Bakura snapped, squeezing his eyes. When the glowing point on the Ring faded and dropped to the floor, Ryou's eyes met angry an angry Bakura for a split second before the light went out completely.  
  
"Hikari," the shadow said with forced calmness, "why don't you go wait somewhere else?"  
  
"But..." Ryou protested, but Bakura stood up and grabbed his arm. He dragged Ryou to the kitchen and set him by the broken glass shards of the sliding door.  
  
"If you move, you'll spear yourself, so don't try to follow me back," Bakura growled, and walked back to living room. He sat on the couch and focused on finding the man in silence.  
  
Ryou whimpered slightly. He was stuck sitting cross-legged among a pile of glass in the dark with a demon plant just outside. The perfect scenario for fear... He hunched his shoulders against the rain splattering against his back, the porch, and the slithering plant limbs.  
  
Bakura, meanwhile, was just in grasp of finding him. His soul moved with the point of the Ring, and they became one as they directed themselves over thousands of faceless bodies. His sight was gone, along with his hearing and taste, but he could smell the flesh of the bodies and could feel them as well. He reached out a shadow and felt warmth. Withdrawing, Bakura glided to another area and sniffed. The Ring moved him forward, and he felt the presence of a soul he was searching for. The shadows told him this was the man with the plant. Bakura's essence engulfed the soul and stopped the body from moving. He felt around for the man, and touched his soul with a shadow. Then he promptly sent him to the Shadow Realm before the man could squeeze away.  
  
To George, this whole process felt like an invisible cloak being draped around himself, and something cold and indescribable in a place where it should not be lurking. Then he was in darkness.  
  
Bakura lit up the graveyard, his little slice of the Shadow Realm, with the Millennium Ring. George staggered upwards and faced the man before him.  
  
"Who... where..." George stuttered.  
  
"Tell me, mortal, are you the one who sold my... brother... a rosebush?" Bakura said, deciding not to confuse the man with words like 'hikari'.  
  
George remembered this man now. _"You seriously aren't considering buying the stupid thing?"_ he had said. This man, in this graveyard, wherever it was, had figured out the rosebush was evil... maybe it had killed his brother...George decided to play it safe and not admit to giving him the rosebush.  
  
"No, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, shivering a little.  
  
Big mistake to lie.  
  
"Fool," Bakura said quietly, but he moved forward and grabbed George by the collar with great force. "I said," he growled, picking George up to eye level, "did you give my brother a rosebush?"  
  
"N-no..."  
  
"FOOLISH MORTAL!" Bakura roared, throwing him down on the ground. "For deceiving me, you shall never see the light of day again... But not before I ask something of you..."  
  
George was shaking. The man must have recognized him. But why was he acting like such a lunatic? Where were they, anyway?  
  
George got the courage to speak up. "I was just walking down the street a second ago... where am I now? What do you want with me?"  
  
Bakura laughed insanely. "Where are we? Feh, you shall see soon... Tell me, mortal, where did this plant come from?"  
  
"Stop calling me mortal... my name is George."  
  
"SILENCE."  
  
George jumped a little. This guy was dead serious.  
  
"Answer my question."  
  
"I bought the rosebush at a plant sale."  
  
"Is that so? Just a regular plant sale?" Bakura said, trying to hide his surprise. He had been expecting somewhere dastardly...  
  
"Can I go now?"  
  
Bakura's glare was enough to silence him again. George figured it was best not to talk unless he was asked to.  
  
"What made it this way?"  
  
"What...?"  
  
"The plant, you dolt!" he barked. "Mortals are such idiots..."  
  
"Well... it was struck by lightning in a storm," George said shakily.  
  
"Lightning?" Bakura said curiously.  
  
"Yeah, everything in my garden got hit... everything died but that stupid bush..." George said timidly, pausing and expecting the man to silence him.  
  
But Bakura was interested. "It was created by lightning..." he mumbled. Lightning. Something to undo the damage done by lightning. That's what he needed to find out.  
  
"Thank you," Bakura said, stepping back a ways. "You have been of much help."  
  
"Um... I'm glad I could... help." George found it difficult to move his arms and legs as he tried to stand up. Something was keeping him down.  
  
"Why did you give us the bush, George?" Bakura said evilly. He was smiling at something, but George couldn't tell what.  
  
"It was a damned bush. It killed my wife."  
  
"Shame..."  
  
"Did it kill your brother?"  
  
Bakura's smirk fell off his face. He decided he would not give this mortal the satisfaction of an answer. Instead, he watched as shadows ran up and down George's arms.  
  
"W-what's happening? Can I leave now, please?" he said, struggling once again to free himself.  
  
Bakura smiled.  
  
The shadows screeched and attacked George. Bakura, of course, was happy watching souls being devoured by the Shadow Realm, and had no reason to keep George alive. Better yet, he had no reason not to kill him. Bakura was smiling evilly and feeling some power flood into him from George's life force.  
  
George did, however, mange to say something before he was dragged away completely.  
  
"I'm sorry it killed your brother..."  
  
Bakura stopped smiling again. George disappeared into darkness. He growled and spat at where the George had stood moments before.  
  
"'I'm sorry it killed you brother...' Feh. The fool thought my hikari was dead!" Bakura said to himself as he returned out of the shadows and into the dark living room. He sniffed the air, expecting Ryou's scent, but nothing of the sort reached him. He walked to the kitchen, and was stunned to see that Ryou had moved.  
  
He whipped around to see is he had crawled to another spot in the kitchen, but he wasn't there. Bakura sniffed again. His hikari wasn't even in the house.  
  
That could only mean...  
  
The strong scent of blood that usually turned him on now just made him nervous. He looked down and saw a dark colored streak where Ryou had been sitting. It ran like a snail's track out onto the porch and down the steps...  
  
Thunder clapped, and Bakura stared at the blood trail until it was washed away by the rain. His hikari, possibly wounded by the glass, had gone onto the death trap of a lawn...  
  
Or maybe he hadn't been hurt by just the glass. Maybe he hadn't, out of his own free will, gone down the steps...  
  
Bakura ran out onto the porch. He whacked aside a large limb and flew down the steps. When he lifted his head, his eyes met an unusual sight. The rosebush was a big mess of rubbery, squirming limbs, spikes, leaves, and black roses. And lots of blood. The scent of so much in one place was driving Bakura crazy, but he remained focused.  
  
"RYOU?" he called. His call was met by the rosebush head, which slowly turned upwards in the center of the bush. The mouth opened and the tongue lolled out, like it was content and carefree. Then, almost in a mocking way, the rosebush seemed to smile at Bakura.  
  
Bakura growled at it. The plant shifted and shook itself a little, sending petals flying everywhere. Bakura backed a little away out of striking distance form some of the larger limbs. The plant, however, did not seem to want to hurt him. It shook itself and relaxed.  
  
It was trying its best to make Bakura angry, and it succeeded.  
  
"STUPID PLANT!" he growled, but the head ignored him. He suddenly realized something, but he hoped he was wrong... "YOU KNOW WHERE HIS IS, DON'T YOU!"  
  
The plant turned its head to look at him, as if to say, "Who?"  
  
"MY HIKARI, YOU DEMON!" he yelled.  
  
The head 'smiled'. It writhed and shifted a little bit, and finally settled to where it wanted to.  
  
A limb came up out of the tangle.  
  
And that limb was holding Ryou.  
  
.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.  
  
MG: OH NO!!!!!!  
  
George: x-x  
  
MG: I don't know what made me do that, but... OH NO!!!!!  
  
George: x-x  
  
DisclaimerBot 2.0: ï 


	10. Lightning

MG: Aah, sorry for the long-time-no-update... I've been really busy... But I'm back and so is the story! WOOt!  
  
DisclaimerBot: ...  
  
MG: Yeesh, it's all rusted... Well, I don't own Yu-gi-oh.  
  
DisclaimerBot: (creaks) (tilts) (makes odd noises) (collapses into a heap) (sets on fire)  
  
MG: oO  
  
.............................................................  
  
Bakura felt his mind freeze momentarily. The rosebush had Ryou... in a worse condition then normal...  
  
Ryou's eyes were partially opened. He moved them with what looked like great difficulty and immense pain to focus their pinpoint pupils on Bakura. Then he issued two syllables before the lids fell on his eyes.  
  
"'Kura..."  
  
And then he was still. It was difficult to tell whether he was still alive or not.  
  
Bakura was horrified. He looked from his hikari to the plant's demonic head, which was 'smiling' again sinisterly. The branch holding Ryou slithered back into the mass of branches before Bakura could do anything.  
  
Now how was he supposed to free his hikari? He could smell blood, but it was mingled with so many other scents from the rosebush... He also smelled...  
  
His own blood...  
  
He jumped up to find that one of the branches had snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the back. He winced slightly but the thorns were not as large as those on other branches. Bakura leapt part of the way up the stairs, drawing a steak knife from inside his jacket, and lunging upon the foe. He struck the branch in the vein and it writhed and squirmed as the head shook itself slightly.  
  
Bakura found his thought returning to him. If he could kill this rosebush, then he could save Ryou... there was no other way.  
  
If he wasn't already dead.  
  
Bakura was pulled sharply out of his thoughts when a branch slammed itself down brutally where Bakura had been moments before. He leapt like a shadow onto the porch railing, his knife held like a sword in front of him.  
  
The plant was keen to kill Bakura before he could do any more damage. It ruthlessly sent a cascade of blows, on after another, onto the railing, smashing it to pieces but completely missing the target, which had made a smooth escape to the ground.  
  
But there was no ground, as Bakura soon came to realize. The lawn was completely occupied by the branches, which did not appreciate the thing standing on them. Bakura climbed his way over the attacking limbs and looked around desperately for a place out of reach of the plant.  
  
He spotted a patch of lawn behind the garage. It ran far behind, so the plant wouldn't be able to stick a limb back inside it. He sprinted across to this patch and didn't stop until he was as far back as he could go. He could hear the plant still, though, and could tell it was furious...  
  
Lightning. Made by lightning. Something to counter that...  
  
Ryou would know... and every second he wasted back here thinking, Ryou could be suffocating...  
  
Trying to control the panic, he thought to himself. Water, maybe? No... Fire? Perhaps...  
  
But what about... destroying it the way it was made...  
  
That may work. If it was tolerant to lightning once, another dose of it may counter the makings inside the monster and destroy it from the inside out.  
  
To his luck, he realized once again that there was rain drizzling off and on, and thunder booming distantly. He needed it to come closer... No lightning would strike if the storm was that far away. Bakura couldn't control the weather, but he may be able to control the plant until the storm came overhead.  
  
He formulated a plan. Bakura would keep the rosebush busy, maybe even come across Ryou, until he could be sure the lightning would strike. Then, he would find a conductor and lodge it into the plant somehow. And then wait. It seemed so flawed, but it was his only chance.  
  
"Phase one," he whispered solemnly under his breath. Then he ran back out into the yard. The head was distracted with a bird that had unwisely flown overhead. Bakura took this opportune to seize a rock beside him. Now it was time to play 'Feed the Rosebush.'  
  
He threw the rock, but instead of having the tongue flick out at it like a fly or the head to swallow it in mid air, the rosebush didn't see it coming and the rock hit it squarely in the back of the head. It paused and shook itself before wheeling around to see what had just happened. Bakura, now armed with his steak knife again, shouted, "HEY, YOU BIG UGLY... PLANT THING!" The proper insult was hard to find.  
  
But that didn't matter. The plant got angry all the same, and dozens of fat, snake-like limbs reered into the air, ready to strike. Bakura hoped that the one clutching Ryou had either dropped him or lessened its lethal squeeze...  
  
He almost dropped the streak knife when a particularly loud crash of thunder rattled across the sky and a streak of silent lightning forked against the black.  
  
"Perfect," Bakura muttered, and this time he wasn't sarcastic.  
  
He leapt into action and began to climb the mountainous plant. The steak knife found its way into the nearest limb, and the bush retaliated by swinging the poised limbs at him. He jumped over them and struck again, the juices mingling with the blood and rain. All this liquid was not good when climbing, as Bakura discovered when he lost his grip on the plant and tumbled down several feet. He shook his head, got up, and stabbed the limb again, dodging a swinging branch. Bakura then discovered that the spikes made good foot holes, but he would need extra support for his hands in a less pointy form.  
  
He jabbed the steak knife in a limb, and actually felt the tongue make contact with his ankle, but it slipped off. He tried to use the knife as a support, but it slid out with a loud _squelch_. Then, he tried again, and found that if he stabbed the limb at an angle, the knife held. He made quick progress this way, and was nearing the head when he realized he had forgotten his conductor.  
  
It was too late to go back now. He would have to find another way...  
  
The head was thrashing about meaninglessly as it tried to shake Bakura off. He would either dodge or slash the tips off anything that came his way, so the plant was defenseless. He was also a swift climber, and to the plant, it was like having an insect crawl up your side.  
  
An insect with a steak knife.  
  
Thunder cracked again, and the white hot lightning came seconds after, which meant the storm was almost overhead. Bakura needed something, and quick. Clinging to a steak knife jutting out of the thrashing plant's head while kicking at the tongue whenever it lapped around the side, he wasn't going to last much longer. Bakura was becoming desperate. The same sensation would occur if you were being thrashed around very quickly and wished for nothing more then for it to stop. It was only his adrenaline clinging to the steak knife now.  
  
The storm would pass if he didn't do something now...  
  
With a last bit of strength, he pushed himself on top of the head, grabbed the tongue when it came thrashing back upwards, lodged the steak knife in it, and threw it up in the air.  
  
There was about one second between his release from the tongue when lightning flashed. It passed through the steak knife and sent 100,000,000 volts of electricity nine times hotter then the surface of the sun into the rosebush.  
  
.............................................  
  
MG: Meh, sorry this chapter was so action-ey and kinda boring...  
  
Bakura: (twitches)  
  
MG: But lightning is EVIL! Beautiful to watch but EVIL! Always remember to not stand in an open field, under a lone tree, in the water, or near a small hilltop, wire fence, or isolated shack!  
  
Bakura: (twitches) And most certainly not on a giant mutant rosebush with a steak knife in your hand! Or if you are a giant mutant rosebush,, make sure a steak knife doesn't get lodged into your tongue!  
  
MG: Thank you for reading Stupid Safety Facts with MG and Bakura! Please review and come back next chapter! I hope the next one will be better...  
  
Bakura: (twitches) Ha! Hahahaha! 


End file.
